Musings from a Single
culture  

Musings from a Single

By Anita

As a sophomore, I now live in a single slightly “off campus” in Braun House (ie. literally across the street, rotated perhaps 30 degrees east from Venerable). Single life is…not as bad as I thought. My room is amply spaced and contains the usual wonders–a sink, an AC; my only complaint is that the shelves are rather high, so I have to stand on my chair to reach. That being said, I do miss having a roommate. I bought a carpet because she bought a carpet and it filled up the emptiness in the room slightly.

I find myself a lot more mobile this year, forced to often visit the adjourning Marks House where my roomie lives to seek her company. I even have an excuse to make the five-minute trek to Avery and see other friends who are living “off campus” there. And I’d be darned if I didn’t cross the street every night to partake in Venerable dinners–actually, I have to cross the street multiple times during the day just to get to class or lunch. But considering all I did last year, which was veg in Venerable if I wasn’t absolutely required to venture out of it, this is a lot of movement for me. Then again, Caltech students really tend to get lazy with their walking sometimes, hence the purchasing of bikes for use in crossing our block-long campus.

Rotation, the process by which our new prefrosh are sorted into the eight official undergraduate Houses, ended last Saturday with initiations into each House. Venerable’s initiation this year took the form of an obstacle course across campus. Upperclassman tour guides led small groups of freshmen to complete different activities, culminating in a class picture with the President of the House.

I and a few other sophomores and juniors manned the tea party station. We themed ourselves Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen/Caterpillar, and the White Rabbit and served both iced tea and lemonade with cookies (no un-birthday cupcakes that day).

Club fair happened on October 9th, during which I discovered the existence of a science fiction and fantasy club at Caltech I did not previously know about.The chemistry club showed up with their usual beautiful array of element-themed cupcakes!

In other adventures…one Rudd frosh broke all 21 dinner rules one day and was punished severely by the head waiters.

That’s it for October events! Till next time, Anita

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